Pondering Clipper

[Adam Lake]

Heard enough about Clipper?  

I have been receiving cypherpunk material for about a week now.  I am new
to cryptography, and new to security(feel free to laugh).  I hope this
posting is appropriate.. Well enough excuses for what I am about to say
but I might like Clipper. 

1.) From what I am hearing (largely propaganda from both sides) Clipper
will be OPTIONAL.  If I am businessman X and I don’t know squat about
security (but realize it is a good thing) wouldn’t I want something I
could feel secure with?  For me, wouldn’t Clipper be a good thig?

2) If, for some reason, I wanted to keep something even more secure so
the government couldn’t see what I was doing, couldn’t I just encrypt a
message before or after it goes through the Clipper Chip?  I would think
this would prevent the government as well as anyone else from reading my
message “en route”

3) Right now I can pick up cellular phone conversations and intercept data
through any network lines with a datascope. For anyone who doesn’t wan
this to occur wouldn’t it be nice if they couldat least be reasonably 
certain that no one could understand what they are hearing or seeing? 

4) Also, would it be unreasonable to have an on/off switch on the Clipper
chip? 

	Please don’t assume me to be a pro-clipper individual.  I am
merely trying to form a logical, educated opinion on the issue.  I will
always feel skeptical when the FBI say “we just need this to maintain our
current state of survellience capability (or is that survellience state
;-) And I am also aware that if anybody thinks these keys will be kept
confidential “unless the government has a warrant blah blah blah” well I
better stop there.......... 

lake at uenics.evansville.edu
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